The Umbran Apprentices
by One Winged Angel666
Summary: Two years after the destruction of Jubileus, Jeanne, without Bayonetta's help, attempts to rebuild the lost order of the Umbra Witches, by starting off with recruiting three apprentices: Cryo, Grill, and Static.
1. Chapter 1

The Umbran Apprentices

Chapter 1

"Angelica," said a woman's voice. "Wake up, Angelica."

As I slowly opened my eyes and recovered my senses, I saw the face of what appeared to be a white-haired woman, whose suit was made out of her own hair. I would sit back up, and found myself outside of my stasis pod, in prison, awake. Behind the mysterious woman were two guards, each armed with rifles.

The woman would lift me back on my feet, as she then said to me, "Are you alright, Angelica? You've spent two years in stasis for so long, that you've yet to recover from it."

"I'm fine," I responded, "but who are you, and why am I out of my prison?"

"My name is Jeanne," said the woman, "and I've spent six-million pounds trying to bail you out. Don't worry about where I got such money, at least not yet."

"We gave you the prisoner, as promised," said one of the two guards, "so I suggest you leave the Vigrid High-Tech Security Prison now with her, unless you've changed your mind."

"Don't worry," replied Jeanne, "I'll get the both Angelica and I out of your sights as soon as possible." She'd then face me and say, "Come on, we're getting you out of this Hell-hole."

"I don't know why you're helping me," I said, "but okay."

Following Jeanne out of the stasis room and down the dark hallway of the prison, Jeanne would say to me, "Tell me, Angelica, do you remember how you've got yourself imprisoned here?"

"Why do you ask," I asked Jeanne.

"Because," replied Jeanne, "you've been in that stasis-pod for so long that you might not remember anything. Sort of like a certain woman my age that I used to know about..."

"Woman," I asked her.

"Less me-time," Jeanne responded, "more you-time!"

"Oh," I said, "sorry. Two years ago, when I was thirteen, there was a female popular high-school girl named Erica, whom along with her friends, used to berate and bully me at my high-school. However, that was until, out of anger, I've somehow mistakenly froze Erica into ice and shattered her into pieces while she was frozen. I would be accused of witch-craft as my school called the police, had me arrested, and sentenced to life in my prison's stasis-pod because of those bizarre ice-powers I've developed."

"That's all I need to know," replied Jeanne.

"Which doesn't explain why you've bailed me out of prison," I said to Jeanne. "Who are you? What are your intentions with me? Who was that woman your age that you mentioned? And how was I related to her?"

"You'll receive your answers in due-time, my pretty," replied Jeanne.

We then exited the prison building and arrived in the outdoors. I was glad to be free from my prison and back outside, but I still needed answers relating to Jeanne and why she bailed me out. In the parking-lot Jeanne led me to a small motorcycle, as I asked her, "Do you drive that thing?"

"Yes," replied Jeanne, "now, shut up!"

"Sorry," I replied.

Jeanne and I would get on her motorcycle, with her on the front-seat and me behind her. She would turn on the motorcycle's engines and drive the both of us out of the prison's parking-lot and down the streets of the city of Vigrid.

Three hours of riding on Jeanne's motorcycle with her as its driver, and already I didn't receive a single answer, as Jeanne was being too secretive about everything, like where she's taking me, what her intentions are with me, and how I'm related to another woman she used to know in her past. Eventually, Jeanne would stop nearby a large castle, on the top of an even-larger mountain that overshadowed Vigrid.

As the two of us got off her motorcycle, I asked Jeanne, "Do you live in this oversized castle?"

"Yes," replied Jeanne, "and you'll learn more in due-time."

Following Jeanne, I'd enter the castle, walk down the hallways that were as dark as the prison I used to be in, and arrived inside a small chamber containing a large desk, a boiling black cauldron, a crystal ball, several beakers containing bizarre liquids, shelves with old books, and the most striking feature of them all, two more girls my age, wearing suits made out of their own hair similar to Jeanne. The difference was that one girl's hair/suit was a fiery crimson, the other wore glasses and her hair/suit was blonde.

"I'm back, girls," Jeanne said to the two girls. "Tell me, have you've been on your best behavior while I was away to pick up our newest member of the family?"

"Yes," said the blonde girl in glasses. "We haven't broken anything by accident, and we've been studying for so many hours."

"Tell us, Miss Jeanne," said the red-headed girl, as she and the blonde girl faced me, "is she the one you've said you'd pick up?"

"Well," Jeanne said, "you're looking at her, so why ask questions you've already know the answers to?"

"Who are those girls," I asked Jeanne.

"Hey," said the red-headed girl, "don't speak as if we're not around!"

"Don't mind her," Jeanne said to the other two girls. "She has lots of questions relating to each of us, but she'll get them soon enough, as soon as I place a certain _spell_ on her."

"What spell," I asked Jeanne.

"Come with me to my desk," Jeanne responded, "and you'll find out."

I followed Jeanne to her desk, as she sat on the top of it, the two of us facing each other. "I'm sorry I haven't told you this before," Jeanne said to me, "but, once you are placed under my spell, there's no turning back. This place will be your new home, and the three of us your new family."

"Why are you acting like you're scaring me," I asked nervously.

Jeanne outstretched the palm of her right hand directly into my face, as all of a sudden, a strong force attacked my brain. I grasped my head, kneeled on the ground, and screamed in horrible agony, as I wondered what in God's name Jeanne was doing to me.

After her attack on my mind, everything went black and silent, as I reopened my eyes and saw Jeanne and the two teenaged girls looking down at me. "Ungh," I groaned.

"Looks like she's waking up," the red-headed girl said to Jeanne.

"Tell us, Miss Jeanne," said the blonde girl, "will our new sister be okay?"

"Right now," Jeanne said to the two girls, "she went through Hell when I placed that spell on her, and she needs her rest."

As I sat up, I've found myself resting on a bed, with Jeanne and the two girls surrounding and facing me. As I looked down and took off the cover on me, I was then shocked to discover that instead of regular clothes like any other teenaged girl, I was wearing a suit made out of my own blue hair!

Facing Jeanne, I then said, "What's going on? Why am I wearing a suit made out of my own hair? What did you do to me?"

"The _real_ question you should be asking me," Jeanne replied, "is what your name is."

"My name," I asked. As I went into my mind to find out what my name was, I couldn't find it anywhere, as all I knew was that I now go by a different name: Cryo, named after my ice-powers.

"I've cast a spell on you," Jeanne said to me, "to slowly and painfully strip you of your original name and memories, so that I can keep track of you and make sure you don't escape my castle and your new responsibilities as an Umbran Witch."

"Umbran... Witch," I asked.

"Your name is now Cryo," said the blonde girl. "I'm Static, named after my powers over electricity."

"And," said the red-haired girl, "my name is Grill, named after my powers over fire."

"I'm very sorry that I had to do this, Cryo," Jeanne said to me, "but the previous generation of Umbran Witches used to do the same to Bayonetta and I, their new generation of Umbran Witches. Jeanne isn't really my real name, and they robbed me of my original name to make sure I don't escape their watch, much like me with you and your new sisters. As for Cereza, the Forbidden Child of both light and darkness, when she first joined our order, they would magically strip her of her original name and memories of her Umbran Witch mother and Lumen Sage father, and thus give her a new one: Bayonetta."

"As in that girl whom I reminded you of," I said to Jeanne, "right?"

"Yes," replied Jeanne. "However, her Lumen Sage father, Balder, would send the Cereza from the time before she joined our order, to the future, to reawaken Bayonetta's long-lost memories of her past, which she lost not only from the same spell I would soon place on you, Cryo, but also when I imprisoned her for five-hundred years to prevent her from falling into Balder's hands. He did this to Bayonetta so that he could use her - the left eye of the world to his right eye - to summon the very monster that she and I used to destroy two years ago: The creator, Jubileus."

"Then what explains me," I asked.

"The order of the Umbran Witches are now but gone from existence," Jeanne continued. "The Lumen Sages - the servants of Heaven - and the Umbran Witches - the servants of Hell - once waged war with each other after a terrible disagreement, with the latter conquering the former. However, the sole surviving Lumen Sage would conspire the witch-hunts as an act of revenge against us for the defeat of his people, and through the witch hunts the Umbran Witches would also head to their inevitable extinction. So, five-hundred and two years later, Bayonetta and I, the sole-survivors of the order, thought about rebuilding the Umbran Witches by finding young girls your age with any magical potential within, and apprentice them into our newest members of the Umbran Witch family. However, being the selfish bitch that she is, Bayonetta prefers that our order _stays_ dead rather than be restored to its former glory, and thus decided to build a small hut in the middle of the Vigrid swamps and live there alone as her home, leaving me all alone to rebuild our order!" Jeanne would then become angry and say to herself, "Holy crap, that fraggin' little bitch, leaving me alone to do all the work while she sits around in her swamp-hut, getting fat!"

"Calm down, Miss Jeanne," said Static.

"The book-worm's right," Grill continued. "It's all in the past!"

Calming herself down, Jeanned said to the girls, "Right, I apologize." She then faced me and continued, "As I was saying, so far, I've managed to recruit three new apprentices that would help me restore the Umbran Witches, including Grill, Static, and of course, you, Cryo. Like me, Bayonetta, and the rest of our fallen sisters, all three of you are stripped of your regular, human lives, and every memory relating to them, original names included. Thus, the three of you have to leave it all behind to become what you and your new sisters are. So now, you, along with Grill and Static, are one of my three apprentices, and as your mentor, I will do everything in my power to develop you into three of the world's ultimate Umbran Witches since Bayonetta and I."

"I won't be able to go back to my old human life," I said to Jeanne, "whatever it originally was, right?"

"Unfortunately," replied Jeanne, "no. After all, I said it myself: There's no turning back. As for your training and education in the dark arts, I'm afraid I can't train you until tomorrow. For now, you need to recover from the side-effects of the spell I casted upon you. If you want, while you're resting, you can always socialize with your new sisters while they keep a close eye on you. I'll be in my office researching my spell-books, so any time you need me, just send either Grill or Static and I'll be right over to get you anything you need."

"Yes, Jeanne," I responded.

"That's 'Miss' Jeanne, to you," replied Jeanned, as she then said to the other two girls, "Anytime she dares to get up from her bed, knock her out into a coma!"

"Yes, Miss Jeanne," replied Grill and Static, as Jeanne exited the bedroom, leaving me with the other two girls in the process.

As Grill, Static, and I faced each other, I then asked them, "So, how did Jeanne recruit you two into those Umbran Witches or whatever they're called?"

"Either you're deaf," replied Grill, "or have attention-deficit disorder, because Miss Jeanne already told you everything about us!"

"As much as I don't get along with Grill, often," Static said to me, "I kind of agree. Neither of us remember anything about our pasts or how Miss Jeanne found and recruited us into the Umbran Witches, because she cast a spell of memory-stripping on us, same as you."

"All we remember," Grill continued, "was when we first woke up with no memories of our pasts. I was the first apprentice to be brought into the Umbran Witches and had my name and memories stripped two weeks ago."

"I'm the second to join Miss Jeanne as her next apprentice," said Static, "as I had mine stripped one week after Grill's were taken away."

"Then that makes me the third," I said, "right?"

"Of course," Grill and Static replied in unison, smiling.

I was silent for the moment, feeling sad, as a few seconds of silence later I said to the two girls, "I know I've asked Miss Jeanne the same question and received an answer from her, but I'm asking this question to you anyway: I can never go back to my original home, wherever it is, with my original family, whoever they are, right?"

"So what," asked Grill.

"You don't miss anyone or anything in your original lives," I asked Grill and Static, "even though you no longer have any memories of them?"

"Grill and I are like inseparable sisters," Static continued, "with Jeanne as our mother-figure. Her training might have nearly killed us, as it's too austere even for us to literally survive, let alone figuratively-so, but we appreciate all that excessive, gratuitous death-training she provided for us."

"You talk," I said to the two girls, "as if you're a pair of disposable tools waiting to be used and then thrown away. Why would you say such crap?"

"Because," Grill responded, "it's supposed to develop our powers and combat-experience, not because Miss Jeanne hates us or whatever-the-Hell. Once tomorrow comes and your first day of combat-training begins, you'll learn to appreciate Miss Jeanne's austere training and discipline."

"Yeah," said Static, "and who knows, we might even become a Hell of a three-woman team, working together to take on any army of angels that wants Miss Jeanne, her friend Bayonetta, and the three of us dead, just as Miss Jeanne expected us to."

"Static maybe a total nerd and teacher's pet," Grill said, "while I often break the rules, disobey Miss Jeanne's orders, pick-on Static, and do things my way. But, even if we never get along very often because of our conflicting opinions and personalties, we compliment each other anyway, and would do everything in our powers to protect each other and Miss Jeanne. Surely, you'll develop the same compassion for us and the desire to keep us from harm's way, just as we'll do likewise to you during our time training to the death with Miss Jeanne as our mentor."

"So going back to your inability to remember," Static said, "I suggest that you do what we did when Miss Jeanne casted the spell of memory-stripping on us: Leave your past behind and focus on today, otherwise you'll never find true happiness. As long as you have the two of us as your sisters, you'll _never_ want to remember or go back to your old life."

After hearing all that crazy-talk from Grill and Static, I would then lay down on my bed, placing my head on the pillow, as I would go deep into my thoughts. What the Hell were those two girls talking about? Why would they say such horrible things? And, judging by everything those two girls said, how will Jeanne take care of me now that I'm stuck as an Umbran Witch and her third apprentice?


	2. Chapter 2

The Umbran Apprentices

Chapter 2

Jeanne would lead Grill, Static, and I into a bar that called itself 'The Gates of Hell,' where behind the bar-table was a bald, African-looking man in a red coat, who happened to be the bartender. Sitting in front of the bar-table was some mafia-man from America, drinking so much of the bartender's liquor that he grew drunk and miserable.

After leading us to the bar-table, the bartender faced Jeanne and said, "Well, if it isn't Bayonetta's little girlfriend and her Umbran apprentices. And, it appears they've brought in a fourth member of the family."

"What the fuck did you say," said the mafia-man, as he faced the four of us and said, "Oh great, just what we need, another member of the anti-angel squad! What I hate more than those invisible thugs working for God, are the folks that fight them."

"Learn to get used to the supernatural, Enzo," Jeanne said to the mafia-man, "as you'll be involved in it a lot."

"Well, excuse me," replied the mafia-man whom Jeanne called by the name, Enzo. "It's just that I've been working my sorry ass off for the past two years to pay a large debt I owe to the bartender, Rodin, that I grew more miserable sober than I am drunk!"

"Don't mind the poor bastard," Rodin said to Jeanne and the three of us. "It's just that he spent two years paying that debt, and he still has a long-way to go. I may be giving him all those second chances, but if he doesn't pay-up soon, he'll be ending up like all those top-ranking mafia-thugs he used to hit in the past, like Eggman the Destroyer, for example."

"Right," said Jeanne.

"Who are you," I asked Rodin.

"Heh heh heh," Rodin chuckled to himself. He would take a puff from his cigar, then continue, "I'm the owner, cook, and bartender of The Gates of Hell. I also act as an information broker, along with my good buddy, Enzo, as well as a blacksmith. I can provide any bit and piece of vital information at an exact and expensive price, or forge the strongest magical weapons for Jeanne and the three of you of her apprentices, provided that you gathered enough gold halos you gather from the angels you'll soon be slaughtering in the near future, for me to forge your new killing-tools." He then said to Jeanne, "So, what kind of weapons will I be forging for your third apprentice? After all, I've forged a flame-sword and incendiary pistols for Grill, and two electric-stunners and shock pistols for Static."

Jeanne would take out a small bag of halos and place it on the table in front of Rodin, and then say to him, "My first two apprentices and I managed to gather the sufficient halos from all the angels we've slaughtered recently, so that you can build us ice-themed weapons for our little ice-princess, Cryo."

Taking the bag of halos, Rodin responded to Jeanne, "Don't you worry, my white-haired princess. Anything you ask for your third apprentice, I'll give to her in a moment's notice!" Rodin then carried the bag of halos to a door and disappeared behind it, as he started the forging process.

Meanwhile, Enzo would face Jeanne and say, "So you're still working to rebuild your long-lost order of witches, huh? If Bayonetta were around, instead of sitting around, twiddling her thumbs at her hut, she'd at least have to develop the balls to help you rebuild those angel-exterminators!"

"You know that Bayonetta woman, like Jeanne," I asked Enzo.

"Hell yeah," Enzo replied. "Two years ago, along with Rodin, I also acted as Bayonetta's info-broker and insurance-provider, giving her the vital clues and funds needed to help her regain her lost memories of the past and give God's invisible thugs a good spankin' in their asses, for a large price, that is. Don't worry, she paid me back for the info and insurance, it's just that she still owes me more of the money I need to pay the debt to Rodin!" Enzo took a puff of his cigar and blew smoke in front of our faces, as he then continued, "You want to know what Bayonetta's doing now, ever since she punched-out a god into the sun?"

"Jeanne told me about her, already," I replied to Enzo, "and you said it yourself: She lives in her hut in the middle of the Vigrid swamps."

"Well," Enzo continued, "there's more to the story than just a witch living in the middle of the swamps. To keep her privacy, she invented and spreaded all across Vigrid, some stupid story about how she eats misbehavin' little tykes to augment her magical powers, much like that other witch from Hansel and Grettel, when she tried to eat the two rugrats herself. Ever since then, the kiddies started to fear her and promised to be good, but that would piss off the parents and other adults of Vigrid, forcing them to form angry mobs to corner Bayonetta at her hut and send her back to the devil that gave her those creepy, anti-angel powers."

"How did she defend herself," I said, "if she's just one woman against a vast angry mob of Vigrid citizens?"

"She'd slaughter them," Jeanne said, "and display their bodies as an example of what happens to those that screw with Bayonetta. She also does likewise to angels whenever they'd invade her home to kill her. Since then, nobody dared to go to visit Bayonetta's hut in the Vigrid swamps, out of fear that she'll kill them, steal their children if they have any, and eat them to augment her magical powers."

"She'd," I said, "kill innocent people to defend herself, and eat little children? How could you say such a thing about her?"

"That's how she's like," Jeanne replied. "I was once the same way as her when I was brainwashed by Father Balder and used against her, always taunting her about her past and even going far as to attempt to kill her in combat. However, when I survived those two rockets that blew-up the building I've fought Bayonetta on, I returned to being the old, compassionate sister-figure to Bayonetta. The differences in our opinions on the restoration of our lost order of the Umbra Witches need no introduction, since I've told you about it already."

"Then," I continued, "why would she save the world and then decide to eat misbehaving children and kill innocent people?"

"She did that to save her own skin," Enzo said to me. "She didn't give two pieces of shit about the world, it's just that if the world went sleeping with the fishes, then she goes with it!"

"However," continued Jeanne, "there was one exception: A young man and journalist by the name of Luka. Even though she never showed it, she cared for Luka and saved his life a couple of times during her quest to regain her missing past. At first, he wanted her dead for the murder of his father, a photographer named Antonio Redgrave, but then realized that it was a group of angels that murdered him, not Bayonetta. She may be a selfish, little bitch, but at least there's _some_ compassion when it comes to that Luka Redgrave-person, as well as her childhood-self Cereza."

"Right," I said. "I should've known that Bayonetta still cared for someone in a world that hated her."

"She also cared for me, you know," Jeanne said, "because she looked-up to me like a sister. By now, though, she's also probably thankful to me for imprisoning her in that coffin for five-hundred years, otherwise Father Balder, Jubileus's right eye, would've use Bayonetta, the left eye, to summon that same beast the two of us managed to destroy together."

"One set of ice-based weapons," said Rodin's voice, as we would then face the bartender, carrying a wooden box.

"That was quick," I said to Rodin.

"I said I'd forge you those weapons," Rodin continued, "and so I did." He then opened the box in front of me, revealing a set of four light-blue pistols and a pair of ice-daggers. "Happy birthday, ice-princess," Rodin said to me.

"I understand the two ice-daggers," I said, "but how come you're giving me four guns when I only have two hands?"

"Here," Jeanne said to me, "let me help you." Jeanne took out the four guns and gave two of them to my hands while strapping the other two on the back of my heels.

"The extra two guns," Rodin said to me, "are meant for your heels. Just fire them from your feet the same way you'd do with your hands, and they work just like any other normally-wielded guns."

"Bayonetta and I used to strap guns on the backs of our heels," Jeanne said, "to allow us to fire from our feet as well as our hands."

"Miss Jeanne taught us how to use guns with our feet rather than just our hands," Grill said to me.

"Surely," Static said, "you'll learn to do the same as well."

"Which doesn't leave how in all nine fucks Jeanne will train the ice-lady," Enzo said.

"You know the answer yourself, Enzo," Jeanne said to him. "You've witnessed it yourself along with Rodin and I, remember?"

Enzo thought to himself for a moment, and a few seconds later, he then continued, "Oh, pardon me. Thanks for the little reminder."

"What are you guys talking about," I asked them.

"The _test_," Rodin said. "Before Jeanne can train you along with your new sisters, she needs to see your combat-skills for herself."

"Combat-skills," I asked Rodin. "I don't know how to fight! And besides, how am I going to display my so-called 'skills' if there's no one to fight against?"

"Come with me, darling," Jeanne said to me, "and you'll find out for yourself."

I was outside, standing in the middle of the city street, equipped with my pair of ice-daggers, each in my holsters, and four guns, two in my hands and two strapped on the backs of my feet. Jeanne said she was doing this to summon angels from the sky for me to fight them, but I was scared. What if I fail her pre-training test? What were the consequences if the angels kill me? Will I be sent to Hell for practicing witch-craft, just like Jeanne, Grill, and Static?

Jeanne, Grill, Static, Enzo, and Rodin were on top of a building next to the street I was on, watching me from above while waiting for the angels to arrive. "Just what I fucking needed," Enzo said, "_another_ angel-exterminator that serves the devil himself, just like Bayonetta, Jeanne, and the fire-princess and lightning-princess... what were their names again?"

"My name's Grill," Grill said to Enzo.

"I'm called Static," Static also said to Enzo.

"You should learn Jeanne's baby-girls' names by now, you know" Rodin said to Enzo, "just as you should get used to a couple of witches kicking some sorry angel-ass and sending their corpses back to Heaven as an example of what happens when you screw with them."

Jeanne then said to me from above, "Are you prepared? If you want, I can give you last-minute pointers before you serve yourself on a silver-platter to those accursed angels!"

"To be honest," I responded to Jeanne, "yes, I kinda do, because I'm scared after all."

"Remember," Jeanne replied to me, "don't bother acting on intellect, as it can trick you into believing things that would get you killed later on. Instead, act on instinct, and by that time you'll fight like we know you can!"

"But," I said to Jeanne, "I don't know how to act on instinct! What if they lie to me and get me killed, like my intellect as you'd say?"

"Here they come," Rodin said.

As I felt something warm, I turned to face the sky, discovering a large, bright light that was blinding me. "Aw God," cried Enzo, covering his eyes, "again with the fucking lights? They're blinding me like shit-knows-what!"

"Shut up, Enzo," Grill and Static said to Enzo in unison.

"Jeanne's baby-girls are right, you know," Rodin said to Enzo. "You keep moving that pie-hole, and we might as well hand you over to the same angels Cryo's going to kill."

Continuing to look up, as my eyes slowly adjusted to the bright light, I saw a small group of angels descending from the sky. They were literally nothing like the angels I heard stories about, as they more-likely resembled monsters that happened to have wings and halos like regular angels.

"And so," Jeanne said from above, "it begins."

The angels, with their giant, golden spears, flew toward me, getting ready to attack. I screamed in fear, kneeling down on the ground while hoping that they didn't attack me. However, for some reason, the angels didn't attack, and as I stopped screaming and got back up, I saw, to my shock, the angels slowing down in front of me. I had no idea what was going on or why those angels, and everything around me in general, slowed down. But, my survival came first, as I aimed one of my two pistols at the angels and fired several shots into their heads, freezing them in ice. The time around me would hasten back to normal, as I saw the frozen angels fall to the ground and shatter into pieces.

Shocked and confused, I faced Jeanne and asked her, "Did I just do that? You know, slow down time long enough for me to shoot them?"

"Of course," replied Jeanne. "It's called Witch Time, one of the most common abilities used by the Umbran Witches. But, I suggest you continue fighting the angels, as there are more of them already."

"What," I asked, as I then faced forward again and discovered more spear-wielding angels that wanted to kill me. With no other choice but to defend myself, I used Witch Time again to slow time around me before they could strike, giving me enough ample time to fire more ice-bullets from my two guns, straight into their faces. Occasionally, I'd use ice-themed torture attacks, like impaling them through icy-spikes and the like, as well as summon ice-monsters made out of my own blue-hair for the larger angels.

However, the fight went-on, as more angels appeared from the sky to eliminate me. As I fought, Jeanne said to the others, "Cryo maybe a force on her own, but let's see how she can handle those angels in a team!" She'd then say to Grill and Static, "Girls?"

"Yes, Miss Jeanne," said Grill and Static, as they jumped-down the building and joined me in the fight.

As the three of us were surrounded by angels, I asked Grill and Static, "What are you doing here? Isn't this supposed to be _my_ test?"

"Miss Jeanne wanted to see how well you do in a small team," Static replied.

"So," Grill said, "I suggest you work-together with us to destroy those angels, unless you want those guys to drag your butt to Hell!"

And just like that, in a matter of two hours, the three of us, as a team, killed every last angel with my ice-powers, Grill's fire-powers, and Static's lightning-powers. The ground around the three of us was littered with angel corpses, each dropping rings that were probably needed for Rodin to build more weapons for us.

As Jeanne, Rodin, and Enzo jumped down the building, landed on their feet, and walked toward us, Jeanne then said to us, "You see, Cryo? Slaughtering hordes of angels wasn't so bad, especially when you have your sisters to assist you."

"I..." I said, shocked by my own abilities, "I don't know what to say. I've fought... as if I'm some magic kung-fu master from those cheesy martial-arts movies! How come you never told me about how well I can fight?"

"Telling you would mean nothing," Jeanne replied, "without providing evidence. I needed to test you, both alone and in a team, to see how well you can defend yourself from the angels. If I were to grade your performance, I'd give you... a C."

"Cryo did something sloppy," Grill said to Jeanne, "right?"

"Well, of course," Rodin replied. "Even with my cryo-pistols and ice-daggers, she still need to grease her wheels before she can fight more powerful angels."

"This is why I'm here," Jeanne continued. "As your mother-figure, I will do everything in my power to make you and your new sisters surpass even me, even if it makes you join those angels you've killed."

"Just make sure you don't do any damage to my ultimate creations while you're at it," Rodin said to the three of us, "or things will get ugly."

"Yes, Rodin," Grill, Static, and I replied.

"Now," Rodin said to Jeanne, "if you need Enzo and I, you know where to find us."

"The Gates of Hell," Jeanne replied, "you don't have to remind me."

"Good," Rodin said, as he then faced Enzo and said, "Come on, Enzo, you still have a large debt to pay!"

"Aw, come-on," Enzo replied. "Can it wait? I had enough Hell when I saw those three apprentices turn invisible to fight those holy-monsters!"

"Ahem," Rodin replied.

"Right," Enzo said, "I apologize."

Rodin and Enzo then walked down the streets of Vigrid, back to the Gates of Hell bar. Meanwhile, Jeanne said to the three of us, "Come on to my castle, now, girls. You wouldn't want to keep your Umbran mother waiting."

"Yes, Miss Jeanne," the three of us replied, as Grill, Static, and I walked down the city streets, back to Jeanne's castle.


End file.
